Falling in love and out of chairs
by BlueDreamer31
Summary: Kim is just a normal girl with a normal crush... Ok, that was a complete lie. Kim is pretty normal but her crush... isn't. She is head over heels for Jared, the guy who sits next to her in science and can't get him out of her head for more than five seconds at a time. So when Jared starts to show signs of having the horrible disease called love... What will they do?
1. Falling

I stuffed my books in my bag along with my lunch, careful to place the crisps at the top so they wouldn't get too badly damaged. I then grabbed my little sister and brother's hands as I dragged them out the door; they didn't want to go to school at all.

"No! Kimmy we don't wanna go!" Ignoring their pleas to let them stay at home I opened the door and pushed them in the car, strapping their seatbelts on in record time so they wouldn't be able to escape.

"You guys have to and you know that. Don't worry, year 3 isn't even that bad" It was their first day back to school after summer holidays and I felt quite evil, locking them in the car and forcing them to go to school just like mum had made me years ago. At that moment I was acting like the mum they'd never had, without them even realising it.

"Pwease? With chewie on top and spwinkles?"

"Not going to work Blue I know you stopped talking like that when you turned four." I looked back for a second and found her pouting at me from the back and Gray with his arms crossed over his chest, the most indignant expression he could give me plastered on his face. "You guys are just going to have to suck it up, alright?"

"Whatever." He was going for the teenage response and I chuckled a little in amusement. He was going to make one hell of a teenager; if he never turned into one it would be too soon. The car went into the parking space and a simultaneous sigh was heard at the back, once again I had to cover the laugh that rose up to my lips and threatened to spill out.

"Ok, everybody out!" The doors opened in time with each other and they both walked their separate ways in step with the twin that was walking on the other side of the patio. The way they did most things in sync without noticing would never stop scaring the hell out of me, even after eight years of living with them. They even dressed like the other, albeit one in bright "princess" pink and the other in "epic" blue, as they had described it. Waving goodbye one last time I pulled out, watching them wave back in the exact same way and turn their heads towards me to see me before I left at the exact same time. Still weird.

* * *

><p>I hurried to class, pushing kids that were smaller than me out of the way and dodging the hands and elbows of kids that were older than me. Oh hallway privileges, scaring year 7s since 1947. I finally arrived at home room and smiled at my waving friends in the corner, directing myself towards them and taking their choice to change seats in my stride. They'd never done it before but new year new rules, right? Ok, not right but there was nothing I could do about it. Even if it meant I wouldn't be able to stare at Jared as easily from there it looked like a decision they'd made together and I'd be against a majority vote. Instead I just sat down with them and tried many different ways of twisting and craning my neck to try to see his seat but it was an impossible feat, I didn't even manage to get a glimpse of his black hair.<p>

"How'd your summer go?" Alice, my best friend, asked me after watching my futile attempts of catching Jared's eye or his anything if I was honest, catching his arm or hand wouldn't even be that bad. "

You know, apart from the usual not much." The usual was obsessing over Jared and daydreaming about him noticing me one day. We'd started using that code word after some of the other people on our table got kind of weirded out when they found out that that was the only thing I'd consistently done for a whole month, whereas the rest of them went down to Port angles or the beach even.

"You've got to be kidding me. We need to get you a hobby." She looked me up and down and then smiled a very evil looking smile. "I'd say basket ball but, well..." I hit her round the back of the head and she ducked to avoid it, giving me a momentary glance at my all time crush. Jared...

"The thing's I'd do to get that boy to notice me."

"Next time you get mad at me in form time I'll just duck for two seconds, it saved me from a good spanking." In response I just stepped hard on her foot without looking away, even if he wasn't in my line of sight anymore because she'd stopped hunching down to avoid getting hit again. "Yup, you definitely need a hobby. How does painting sound?" I did need something to do so that "the usual" stopped being exactly that but she knew just as well as I did that I loathed painting more than anything else in the world. I shot her an unamused look that got her to flash a smile that screamed you-love-me-really and finished the conversation even though we'd never talked about what she'd done over break. I didn't know about her but the flash I'd got of Jared suggested he'd spent his holidays in a body-builder training centre and a barber shop. Not that he didn't look cute, it was just weird, 'tis all. How can you get that buff in a month? Maybe it was my eyes playing with me again and a play with perspective; a glance didn't mean I'd seen him properly. So he probably didn't even have more muscles, just that weird buzz cut I was sure I'd seen.

The bell rung and I was once again pushed out to the hallways for yet another hit and dodge game. In fact I didn't mind them at all, I enjoyed them actually; it was the only time I felt even remotely graceful. Because I didn't have my next period with any of my nearby friends I could play to the fullest of my ability without having to grab anyone's hand and tug them through or be stopped by the sluggish moving of one of my friends in front of me. I could truly be free and fast when shifting and wiggling through crowds that scared my little sister and brother. Last time I'd taken them remotely close to a crowd I had to give them a double piggy back that made me get stuck in the middle of it when I could have easily navigated through it on my own. I was sure though that as soon as they got into high-school they'd develop the ability just like I had. When you're small you have to learn to squeeze through.

That day was different to say the least. Some year sevens weren't following the rules and pushed past me which made me outright furious, two years ago I hadn't even dreamt of pushing a year 11 out of the way and I was already in year 9, it just seemed like suicide. Which it was. I turned around swiftly and pulled down hard on one of their bags, it made the kid turn around indignantly but stop in his tracks when he saw my tie. The year eleven tie. He back peddled, the words "mission abort" flashing through his eyes for me to see. As soon as he could he turned around and ran as fast as he could back to his group of friends which wasn't very fast because the seconds he'd stopped had allowed a crowd to form between him and his pals, one he wouldn't be able to cross in a while, that much I could tell from experience.

He had it coming so with that I turned around and left the poor kid gaping as he tried to steer himself clear of me and over to his group of friends. Not gonna happen buddy. I mentally calculated the quickest route to English and finally decided on my favourite way down the back of the main building where only a few people went down. It was peaceful and quiet and I estimated it might take me a bit less but considering I'd never worn a watch in my life and that the difference was minute it was hard to tell. I finally arrived at English and took my seat and sighed, waiting for the moment I was really waiting for. Waiting for my whole life.

"Ok class, settle down!" Jared still hadn't arrived and I was starting to get nervous. English had passed slowly and tediously with the teacher explaining the rules that were taught in every lesson and Science had finally arrived.

I loved Science more than the world but still couldn't find it in me to try to enjoy my first chemistry lesson without Jared sitting next to me. I was just staring at the empty seat beside me in despair when it pulled back and I jumped about two metres, successfully falling out of my seat. Jared was surprised by my outburst and started looking down in shock.

"Oh sorry did I scare-" He suddenly cut himself off, just staring at me while I shuffled uncomfortably under his gaze on the floor, trying to get myself up. I finally did and I took a moment to adjust my skirt, sitting down and finding Jared still staring at me. I blushed a deep red and opened my notebook accidentally to the wrong page: The Jared Page. It was staring straight at me, daring me to close it quickly but draw attention back to myself or close it slowly, risking Jared seeing it. I decided on a mix of the two and was relieved when I saw him still staring at my face instead of the now closed notebook. Wait a minute, staring at me?

"Hi." I squeaked nervously, hoping it would get him out of his reverie but it never did, he just uttered a breathy hello back and that was that. He kept looking at me without even blinking unless he had to and I kept trying, that being the key word, to concentrate on protons and chemical changes or whatever. I loved chemistry so by the end of the lesson I was quite worried, I couldn't have possibly let someone distract me so easily, could I have? I had and I knew it, because I loved him more. Oh I loved him so much it hurt and just the thought of him staring at me sent my head spinning and my heart into a race to see how much it could beat in one minute. Needless to say that lesson it broke the record, beating so much and so loudly that I feared he'd hear it. I kept wiping my hands on my tights and praying for him to stop looking while at the same time hoping he'd never turn away. It was what I'd been waiting for my whole life and yet when I finally faced it I hid behind a curtain of hair and sweaty palms.

"I'm Jared." And there it was again. Puncture straight to my heart. I floated down from my frenzy and decided I'd never wanted him to look away but that was worse. Even if he did notice me for the first time in my life he thought it was the first time I had too which was downright offensive. I stalk the guy for twelve years and the least you'd expect was for him to at least acknowledge my presence or realise that he has a girl following him like a lost puppy. Nope, not even that.

"I know. Jared we've sat next to eachother for the past two years." I explained in a voice that surprisingly sounded full of mock patience and that had an outright patronizing ring to it. "I'm Kim." Deciding it was my chance I threw it in there casually just like it didn't matter but in fact it was a massive deal. He knows my name! I shrieked so loud I was sure my ears would have rung if it hadn't been inside my head.

"Can I call you Kimmy?"

"Yes!" I jumped straight for it and kind of regretted sounding a bit too straight forwards afterwards but my mouth and mind were so jumbled that my word filter was broken making it better to just give up so that it didn't hurt as much when I made a fool of myself. If I hadn't been trying then it didn't matter, right? "I mean yeah, sure." I turned bright read and kind of half smiled in embarrassment. Trying or not it was still awful.

"Cool." After a few minutes of an awkward silence forming between us and a lot of nodding and shuffling I burst out laughing, not being able to take the pressure anymore. "What?"

"That was just so-" Another bout of giggles escaped my mouth and I muffled it with my blazer. "Awkward." I finished but was left panting for air in the small classroom while we waited for the teacher to begin the lesson. "I'm- not- good with-" deep breath. "Awkwardness."

"You say that word a lot."

"That's because I am. Really awkward. Just ask my one and only friend."

"I wouldn't call it awkward, just..." He stopped for a minute and phrased his words carefully. "You just react differently to other people." A small pause that made me think he was done came but before I could change the conversation topic onto the work on the board his eyes grew to the size of saucers and he sped to "finish" his otherwise already terminated sentence. "In a good way. Of course in a good way, how could it not be in a good way? Everything you do is amazing and awesome and different in a perfect way... I'll shut up now."

"Did you just call me perfect?" I pinched my leg a little under the table and when nothing happened pinched it harder making it hurt like hell. I wasn't waking up which meant I was in a dream. Yeah, right.

"Maybe." Ok, definitely a dream./

I guessed it didn't matter because in reality I'd soon wake up anyway, injured leg or no and Jared would return to the smaller less ripped and shabbier version of himself, also the one that didn't notice me. But you know what my mum always used to tell me in times of difficulty?

Dreams are there to give you another shot at something else so that you can take a brake from everything. So enjoy them Kimmy and never let them go, no matter how impossible they seem./p


	2. Hiding

I closed my eyes momentarily, already feeling the headache coming on, and sighed into my hands. Too many things were happening at once and I had so many stupid essays to complete along with just as many tests to study for and on top of all of that the two little kids screaming behind me.

"Elena is coming over for a play date tomorrow!"

"No, Mark is!"

"I was born first so I should have first pick!"

"With twins the one that's born second is oldest!"

"You just made that up!"

"Oh yeah? Ask Kimmy!"

"Kimmy!" They both yelled my name at the same time and I had just about enough. I stood up gave them both my evilest glare, which albeit wasn't that evil but scaring 8 year olds wasn't all that difficult anyway.

"Blue? In the kitchen now." My eyes then shifted to the other twin as I picked him up and sat him on the couch, pushing down slightly to emphasize my point. "And you Gray stay here, I'll deal with you later." Once we got to the kitchen and Blue was sat in the naughty chair I decided that with her it would be best to try for pitty.

"Blue, do you understand how hard it is for me to take care of you two when I'm always alone and Dad's at work?" She nodded solemnly as I felt smugness seep over me, this was going to be too easy. They would each end up sitting on their half of the room leaving me 100% free to finish homework and to just get two minutes of peace. "Well I want you to do something for me this time. You see, I'm in year 11 now and so they give me big homework tasks that are incredibly difficult to get done with you and Gray screaming and fighting all the time."

"I'm sowwy."

"Hey, none of that." I told her smiling and wiping a tear off her cheek. "Just imagine this as a... Thank you gift, for my birthday." She smiled and nodded, gave me a hug and then clambered up the stairs clumsily, probably heading to her room. Next, was Gray who wouldn't be as easy.

"Kim, should I go in now?"

"Yup, get your arse in here Gray." He walked in slowly peaking over the entrance to find me glaring at the wall that was about three feet away from me. "Stand next to the wall soldier!" With Gray the best tactic was to just make it like a game, he usually took those more seriously than life anyway. "What do you pledge?"

"Isn't that only said when you're in front of a judge-"

"What do you pledge soldier!"

"Not guilty sir yes sir!" I started marching in a straight line occasionally looking at him in fake disgust, just like I'd seen in the movies.

"I beg to differ! I saw you committing the act of being a traitor against your country when you fought with our ally Blue, the leader of princess land."

"I'm sorry sir yes sir!"

"You do realise you don't have to say that every time you say something right?"

"Of course, it just makes it more real." I smiled at him and then ruffled his hair, pushing him slightly towards the door. "Go on soldier, but don't let me see you do that again or you will be... Tickled to death!"

"No!" I ran out of the kitchen with my arms stretched out. We found Blue halfway up the stairs and she decided to join in, it wasn't really her choice though as she knew she'd get tickled if she didn't run as fast as she could. I was about to reach them when the doorbell rang through the air. I almost missed it what with all the giggles but just managed to hear it.

I went down the stairs slowly counting as I got close to the bottom. I already knew that there were twenty steps in total but I didn't want to face the person at the door. Blue and Gray looked at me curiously from the top of the stairs so I shooed them, motioning to their bedroom. If it was who I feared it was then it was best for the to be in there and out of his way. Taking a deep breath I opened the door with my eyes closed and started talking as quickly as I could.

"Dad, I'm really sorry but dinner isn't ready, I really wanted it to be but Gray and Blue were arguing so I just had to deal with the two of them first because I just know how much you hate it when you come home with a hangover and there's not complete and absolute silence. Please don't hurt me-"

"He does what?" My eyes flew open and what I saw left me dying on the spot. It was Jared and I had just told him my dad was a drunk who hit me. God all mighty just swallow me whole and get this done with. "He hurts you?!"

"What?" I said, stretching out the word too much for it to be sincere. "Who said that?" My voice rose up a few octaves which just made it obvious that everything in me wanted everyone everywhere to know that I was not only the nerd/freak but that I was also hit by my dad. That would go down well with the school bullies.

"You did, just two seconds ago."

"I did?" I forced myself to laugh but it came out as the fakest, most horrendous laugh that had ever come out of my mouth. Clearing my throat I just looked up into his nice lovely warm eyes and begged him through what I imagined to be a mental message to just shroud my secret into the darkest pits of his mind where he'd never find it. Somehow he got the hint and didn't reply to my lie. "Are you here for anything specific then?"

"No, I was just strolling down the street and I saw your house-"

"Which you knew was mine because..." I motioned with my hand for him to continue although slightly surprised by how I was acting. I supposed it was just that we were at my house on my "territory" and I simply felt more powerful here or something. Wow, I'd never ever thought that I had even a pinch of influence on other.

"I heard these two little kids yelling your name inside."

"How did you- You know what? Never mind." I was about to continue with a probably very embarrassing rant about the whole akwardness of the situation when he suddenly perked up and turned towards the trees in despair.

"Now?" He sort of mumbled under his breath as he moved back to me and smiled an apologetic smile at me which just made me suspicious. "I'm sorry Kimmy, I need to go, but wait! That gives me an idea!" A smirk formed itself on his lips, his brain patterns were starting to be somewhat confusing and this came from the freak who thought that revising algebra on weekends for fun was normal.

"Are you Ok Jared-"

"Kimmy you need to ask me to stay." Was he inviting himself into the house? But he had glanced at the forest, maybe he'd gotten in with the wrong people, Sam Uley like the rumours said, and he was going to get pummelled to the ground for, I dunno, not paying back the money for steroids? It seemed plausible so I opened the door wider, not wanting him to get hurt.

"Do you want to come in?" All the while I looked over his shoulder at the forest, looking for anything suspicious like a sniper gun which might be concentrating it's nice red dot laser on Jared's back. Or maybe I was simply watching out for a big muscly silhouette outlined against the forest to confirm my doubts.

"No, not like that. Say it like you need me to stay." Well, that was one weird request yet I couldn't risk him dying on me so I opened my eyes wider, stuck my bottom lip out and poked my eye to make it water slightly.

"Jared, you've got to stay."

"Hear that? I'm needed!" He yelled it in the vague direction of the forest, going in through the gap I'd left in the door when he first asked me to tell him to come in. "Thank you so much Kimmy!"

"It's nothing really." And that's when I realised: Jared was _in_ my house.


	3. Hurting

I laid my head down on my pillow, my eyes closing shut automatically. I couldn't believe that for the first time in nine years Jared had actually talked to me, and he'd been in my house, heck he even knew my most well kept secret. It was like he was struck by lightning and his brain had gone dead. Not that I was that ugly but he was Jared Cameron and I? I was Kim Conweller, the nerd that sits at the back of the class with the gigantic glasses who wears no makeup and chews pens so much that she has to throw one out at the end of each day. With all of this you'd think someone would at least look at me in disgust as I made my dayly visit to the bin but nope, I didn't even get that.

I supposed it was Ok, at least I had Misty, the girl who _had_ looked at me in poorly covered dislike because I had been chewing pens (back then pencils) in year 4 too, when we met. She told me it was weird and that I shouldn't do that anymore I'd end up with no friends. Misty and I, of course, became complete friends the moment we got over that; we were 9, she had cool blond hair that was never seen at the rez, I had this really horrid strawberry gum at my house that was way too sweet but which she deemed worthy of falling in her mouth and that was that. Later we bonded over being loners and our love for books, I wasn't _that_ shallow.

Even though I was trying to keep my thoughts on Misty and the dodgy way our friendship started, Jared kept popping up here and there. _I bet he would like the strawberry bubblegum, he likes sweet things._ Another one, another damn minute of my life wasted on the guy that hadn't noticed me until today and probably still hadn't; who was to say that him coming over to my house meant anything? He was popular after all and I didn't keep up with that vibe: fashion and makeup were so not my thing, his behaviour could be considered not even close to something non-platonic in the world to those people. Heck, it was probably meant to just confuse me, a stupid joke put together by stupid Jena and her minions or by Jonah's jock group. All people who didn't deserve my time but were getting it because of _stupid_ Jared. _Stupid, amazing, cute, incapable of doing any wrong, Jared. Jared Jared Jared Jared. _I had it bad. I had it very bad.

"Kim! Kim come down right now!" Crud, I'd forgotten to make dad's dinner with all the lovey-dovey mush in my head. It was just another reason to hate him! I tripped over my own feet in my haste to get over to my notebook, fling it open to the pros and cons page and scribble it down quickly before my dad got mad for not only having to wait for dinner but also for having to wait for his personal servant. As I marched down the stairs I thought to myself happily _that makes everything a little bit more balanced, now it's only 300 pros against two cons. _Then again the other con was written in crayon and by Misty, not me "He has cooties"

"I'm sorry I forgot to make your dinner father, it was completely my fault-"

"Who else's would it be you waste of space?" He wasn't hung over, today he'd come home drunk. Bloody perfect, Blue and Gray were going to see the man they thought worked day and night to feed them with bloodshot eyes and yelling profanities. I _had_ to stop him. I would risk my life to save the little twerps, heck, I'd risk my life just to have them both be happy which was precisely what I was about to do now

"Father lower your voice, Gray and Blue are sleeping."

"What did you say?!" He grabbed the nearest thing to him, a fairy washing up soap, and hurdled it at my head. Luckily my reflexes were in tip top shape and I managed to duck down before any harm could be done. "You don't give me orders! Make my dinner and scrub the kitchen clean so no speck of dust is on any surface!"

"But I do that every day anyway." My voice had shushed down to a whisper, he'd never threatened me like that, never looked at me with so much hate in his eyes.

"You trying to be funny? I'll show you something _hilarious_." His hand came over his head and straight down to slap me so hard I reeled back, swearing. "Do what I asked you to do, you won't stop stop cleaning until the sun comes up, you hear?!"

The rest of the night was just as bad as the day had been good, just like it was told in stories "don't go out at night, there's monsters out there". They at least got that part right, although I believed that what I considered a monster and what they thought one looked like was completely different. I _knew_ my dad was horrible but making me stay up on a school night cleaning the kitchen was the worst thing he'd done to me so far. _It could've been worse._ Tiny afraid me spoke up and I wanted to slap it into silence again as a shiver of disgust went down my spine at the mental image conjured, it could've been so bad I was almost grateful for the bags under my eyes and the spreading purple bruise.

"Hey Kim!" I didn't even move, I was pretty comfortable. When I had arrived at my locker instead of opening it I'd just let my head fall forward, probably making it look like I was crying or something. Beyond caring I lazily made one eyelid budge upwards so that I could look at Jared in what I hoped looked like an uninterested manner even though I was feeling quite the opposite.

"What do you want Jared?"

"Are you Ok? You seem a bit tired…" Flip, he'd caught on! I put both hands on the cool metal and pushed, forcing myself to stand up like a normal person and look at him properly as if I had the energy to actually pay attention to people today. They were just blobs of skin to my tired eyes, that decision was just aided by the fact that I'd forgotten my glasses and couldn't see what was five meters in front of me.

"Oh, yeah, I was just up all night-" Cutting my sentence off I slapped a hand over my mouth before I said cleaning by mistake. "Reading. Up all night… Reading." It sounded fake even to me. God, what had I gotten myself into? My peers all ignored me and that was all in the end swell with me because it meant I didn't have to hide secrets or anything, I didn't have to lie, didn't have to just- It simply made everything easier, no matter how much it hurt.

"Um… Ok?" He seemed to take a massive gulp of air into his lungs as it all came out in a whoosh. "Anyway Kimmy I was wondering-"

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" It was Ryan, I recognised him because my "friend", not really we only sat next to each other in homeroom, had gone through a pretty hard breakup with him only a couple weeks back. Apparently he was a douche who she was still caught up on but I'd never actually seen him in person on Friday when they sat us next each other. I kept my difference, I wasn't too fond of popular people, they scared me pretty bad.

"Uh, yeah, sure." I turned around and saw him staring into my eyes which just made me realise he had some pretty nice blue ones, nothing like my muddy brown ones. He smiled at me as I raised an eyebrow, wary of the whole situation. Cute guys with nice blue eyes were _not _supposed to speak with me or come into contact.

"I sat next to you in English on Friday and I really like you so, would you like to go out with me?" Gaping like a fish I took in what he said slowly. I was being asked out by a guy. This was Laura's ex-boyfriend, even though we didn't talk he was still a very very big no and in either case did I want to go out with someone who was so different to me, did I really- "Nah, just kidding." Then he turned around, high fived a couple of his friends and left me there stock still in the middle of the corridor, people moving by me without paying attention to me like they always did. I was a nobody in any case, wasn't I? His friends had probably dared him to go and ask out the ugliest girl he could find, he saw me, thought he even had a reason to talk to me without it being too noticeable and BAM he'd gotten a plan together.

The worst bit though? Jared had disappeared while I was distracted with stupid, not worth my time, Ryan. And now I had nobody to hug me or tell it would would all be fine.

Just like it had always been.


	4. Discovering

With tears streaming from my eyes I ran down the hallway, not towards my class, not towards anything in general, I was just escaping the horrible clutches of pain. Or attempting to do so. Life was just so unfair, I got Bs in English even though I worked harder than anything for that subject, in things I _was_ good at pencils were thrown at me and the one moment when I could just ignore classes and school I was being called ugly and made fun of even more. Wasn't there supposed to be this balance that set everything straight so everyone had their fair share of bad and good?

I think it's broken if I'm honest. People like the jocks and the populars didn't do a single good deed a day, heck, they probably did 20 bad ones and then there was little ol' me sitting in the background and being nice to everyone, getting repaid with slaps, insults, Bs, and so much more that it hurt. I kept pushing against the barriers that life put in front of me but in the end they were just that, barriers, meant to stop me and not really ready to get out of the way any time soon. It just sucked so much sometimes to see yourself stuck in an endless cycle of going for it as best as I could to just be knocked down in every sense of the word. I tried to keep Blue and Grey safe, my dad hits me. I try to get Jared to like me, he abandons me in a hallway to my own luck. I talk a little to popular and he makes me feel as crap as hell, albeit that one _really_ wasn't my fault.

My feet came to a sudden halt on the muddy path I hadn't realised I'd been following when I came face to face with a metal building. It had blue chipped paint falling from it and a dome shape which made it look like a ball that had fallen from the sky, getting itself half buried in dirt. There was "Do not cross" tape over the entrance but I'd had too much of a bad day to simply try to circle around it and continue on my merry way.

"No. Way." I stood gaping at the insides of the- of the- "Oh my god it's a planetarium!" I knew there was an abandoned one around the woods yet every time I imagined it I simply imagined it to appear like the ones in the pictures I looked up on the internet. This one on the other hand was old and rusted all over, somehow managing to make it look full of magic.

I couldn't believe I'd actually found it! It had been my lifelong dream to uncover it from a scary amazon-type jungle, making it into the coolest clubhouse ever for me and all of those non-existing friends I had in year two. The goal had of course changed a little bit when I discovered that the woods around my house didn't have tigers, or lions, or monkeys, but instead just had a couple of birds milling around. Yet it changed the most when it hit me that no friend of mine would actually enjoy trekking through the woods for two hours each day just to make my happiness complete while we had a tea-party. So in the end I simply wanted to find this amazing place, and I just had.

"Yes!" A couple of bats flew from their place on the crevices and holes all around the dome, startled, and soon to be joined by me as a voice came up behind me.

"Kim?" Spinning around I saw Sam Uley, leader of those whom the tribe honoured and respected for some odd reason. I gulped hard and batted my arms in hopes of becoming a bat, being able to fly away in search for a new quiet spot like the rest of them had. Instead it just made Sam look at me weirdly. Why did I even cross the yellow tape anyway? I was an idiot, a third degree one, I should've just done what I'd been doing all my life.

Oh well, wasn't that what YOLO was about? Yes, it was a foreign policy to me but maybe this would be an educational experience. I'd never been in trouble before so I could gain a few experiences in life that I wouldn't be allowed to have once I became an adult and the opportunity passed by. It was probably for the best. Still panicking into my hands I forced my mind to believe every inch of what I'd thought. If I got to feel all these things in life that I'd never even gotten a glance of before then I wouldn't be so scared. Perhaps that was the secret to coming out of it all and to stop hyperventilating every single time someone looked at me bad. I just had to stand up tall and face the music. Oh god, I was so not ready for this.

"Um, yes?" My voice came up 8 octaves higher than it normally would but who cared anyway, this guy didn't know me, he probably didn't even realise I was lying. The look he gave me told me otherwise but, how did he even know my name anyway? I didn't voice my question, in case it was rude, choosing to simply swallow it down hard. I didn't want to be in even more of a mess, didactic lesson or not.

"What are you doing in the forest all alone?" He shouldn't care about that. He was a protector of the "tribe" and as such he should be worried about putting a hooligan such as me in jail. This was probably my last chance to go to Juvy anyway before I had to go to real badass jail which, my friends, would have to be one less educational experience because there was no way in hell I was going in there.

"I was just, you know, exploring."

"Well you should go back now before Jared blows a fuse, it's close to nightfall."

"Why would Jared blow a fuse?" He didn't care about me. He'd abandoned me to my luck the minute Ryan stepped into the picture with his stupid womanizing ways. Even if he wasn't exactly trying to make me fall for him. Whatever.

"Never mind. It's dangerous out here. Let's go." Saying no would've been pretty bad so instead I simply reminded myself where this place was to return on a sunnier shinier day when Sam could come up with less excuses to kick me out of my new favourite place.

The minute I stepped foot outside the forest, Sam being out of sight too, I breathed out the massive gulp of air I hadn't even realise I'd been holding in. To hell with YOLO and enlightening experiences, I prefered staying in the dark forever; getting into trouble would not be needed to have a full and happy life.

So walking out from behind the tree I had a new resolution in mind. Things wouldn't be able to push me down. From now on they would all be part of my new project: Living life to the fullest.

Excluding jail, Juvi, getting into trouble and, of course, detentions.


	5. Attempting to escape

_Hello. My name's Kim, and this is my will. I know you don't start them like this but I don't read wills in my spare time so I have no idea how to do this. Thing is I need to tell you all what happened and who I want to give my things to. My dad is the killer if you're looking for witnesses. How quaint, huh? Witnessing my own murder. Never mind, the irony probably isn't even making making you laugh, well I hope it's not. How horrid would it be if you laughed on the day of my death? Or the day you find my body... Hmm , there's something to think about._

I scrunched the piece of paper up, hitting the lamp as I did so, and watched as it swung from side to side. Once it was still again and the shadows had stopped dancing around the room I tried again. I had to get this right and freaking out all over my will, showing everyone my final words were not witty, sarcastic, funny or enough to get it put in a movie as a cheesy line... That's not exactly what I wanted.

_I'm locked in my basement. Although if you're reading this it's probably going to be: The girl who died on the 10th of September 2014 was locked in her basement during 20 hours until she starved to death. But who's going to pick that as the headline for a newspaper? Nobody because no-one actually cares._

Wait, that's not what I was supposed to write in my will… I wasn't trying to plan out what would happen afterwards, nor was I trying to get them to feel bad for me. I had enough of the procrastination, I thought I might as well get on with it and stop stalling; I drummed the rubber at the back of the pencil against my lips, tempted to bite it like I always did.

_To the love of my life,_

_If you've managed to get this from the firm grip that's probably trying to stop you from reading this then you now know. I do realise how stupid this is and being honest with you, I don't really care anymore._

_Jared I love you. And I'm dead now, having in mind that nobody's going to get their hands on this if I survive. I'm not stupid though Jared. I know you can't last more than 3 days without water and even if I managed to get some lasting more than three weeks without food would be a miracle._

_After Ryan made me feel bad I ran into the forest, found a planetarium, met your good friend Sam, and the rest is history… Well, not really but you get what I mean. My dad was so mad that I wasn't at home when he came back, he kicked me and punched me until I lost feeling of space and time, fainting. I woke up in here, not really aware of where I was up to the moment when I heard footsteps above my head._

_Jared, if you're going to pay attention to only one part of the letter then let it be this: Take care of Blue and Grey for me. Their location is unbeknownst to me, yet I have faith that you'll find them or that they'll at least be close to the house. So please, whoever you are, save them._

_Thank you,_

_Kim._

I looked at it and shook my head in despair. It was the worst thing I'd ever written in my life. Paragraphs all muddled with no link between them, and worst of all I'd left the important part that he needed to know to the end. What if after reading "love of my life" and "Jared" in the same letter he scrunched it up into a ball and threw it into the nearest bin? Grey and Blue would be dead before anyone even knew who they were and that they were missing. Were they in danger? Oh god, I hadn't thought about that. Here I was, selfishly worrying about myself and they were out there, either crying because they couldn't find their big sister or in another basement in who knows where. I hated this.

Abandoning my plan to stay quiet in hopes of not attracting any attention I started banging on the basement door repeatedly, yelling for help. Nobody came, and I didn't think anyone was going to come tell me to put a sock in it, when the footsteps above my head began. I believed them to be coming towards me but after awhile it became evident that this person was pacing. Was it dad? I doubted he could feel remorse about what he'd done, maybe he was just wondering where to dump the body?

Sticking the note in my pocket and putting my bum back on the dusty floor I prayed that whoever found the letter would read it through to the end, if my dad didn't decide to put me into a river that made the note fade away into oblivion, that was.

"Help!" The sob escaped my mouth, as the reality of what was going on appeared in my mind. Maybe I was blowing the whole thing out of proportion but what if I was rightfully scared? What if he shot me in the head? What if he… Oh god. This day could not possibly get any worse. My vision blurred, hiccuping through the sobs in an attempt to stifle them I pulled myself as close to the wall as possible and surrounded myself with the empty boxes, they were a weak barrier but all I had.

In that moment I realised the situation was so drastic that a wall made from cardboard actually reassured me that I was safe for a few moments.

_Give my love to Blue, Grey, Alice, Misty and Jared._

_Give my dad a nice slap to the face._

_Regarding my possessions… Give my clothes to Blue so she can put them on when she's older and remember me._

_My computer to Misty who I know has always loved it._

_All of my money to the kids._

_The old nintendo and game boy in the back of my closet can be Grey's if he shares them with Blue._

_Make sure they're all happy. Don't mourn my death for too long, simply keep on going with your lives as if I, Kim, had never even happened._

Observing my handiwork I took the pencil away from the box that now had my actual will. The letter would stay in my pocket for now. The lead snapped in half halfway through it so most of the writing was smudged and hard to read, but legible, hopefully. A yawn involuntarily escaped my mouth so I layed down behind my "protection", deciding to deal with it in the morning.

That was, if tomorrow really came, which I was starting to have doubts about. It could all end tonight and I'd never see the sun again.

**Jared's POV**

I'd been feeling bad all day. This feeling of dread kept spreading through my stomach, tying it in tight knots that barely left me move without collapsing back in pain. If this was what a period felt like then I could understand why girls loathed it so much, but this wasn't just a stomach flu, this was sickness and the feeling of danger lurking nearby, all rolled into one. I was going to throw up so bad.

"I can't take it anymore!" Pulling on my hair I transformed, running into the forest as fast as I could while the other minds invaded mine. Even so, moving felt much better than sitting down with my knees pulled to my chest, yet it all came back soon enough. _You're going the wrong way. _Huh? _You need to save her. _Who was that? It didn't sound like any of the wolves in the pack, was I turning crazy? _Go! Now!_ I was so confused by this point that my feet stopped, refusing to keep going in that direction, turning my body around and pointing me straight to a place I very well knew as it all became evident.

"Help!" It was soft, not a cry for help, simply the cries of despair of someone who's lost all hope. _Kim._


	6. Actually escaping

The slumber I submitted myself to was not as light as I'd hoped to be, proving to in fact pull me under the surface of consciousness for much too long and too deep. A loud crash had awoken me but startling noises normally didn't just come out of nowhere, there'd probably been a lead up which I'd missed whilst sleeping. Great, exactly what I needed, to give my dad the chance to break some furniture and then barge in here and snap my neck in half just because he felt like it, all during my peaceful sleep. That would make this day perfect, wouldn't it just? I supposed what most petrified me about the whole idea was that I'd be gone _puff_ and that would be it for Kim Conweller the girl who tried too hard, and died without even realising.

"Kim! Kim!" Wait, that didn't sound like my dad. It didn't sound like him at all. Actually it sounded like Jared but there was absolutely no way- Or was there? Could he have come save me like the Prince Charming I'd always made him out to be? I approached the door silently in hopes that if he hadn't come and that was just my dad's voice distorted through the floorboards he wouldn't catch me trying to escape. I imagine that wouldn't end well. "Kim! Kim Oh my God Kim!" It didn't make sense for him to be da- no, I refused to give him the honour of being called that. It didn't make sense for that man to be my kidnapper, their voice wouldn't be calling out to me in a frenzy, my kidnapper would just unclick the lock and yell in a booming voice that my life was over. So I took my chances and whispered as silently as I could.

"Jared?" Now, I knew that in the case that he were here the whole murmuring his name thing would not help him to find me at all but what was I supposed to do? Maybe… Oh I didn't know, I was _scared_. I was scared so badly my heart hurt every time I breathed, thus causing there to be a lack of oxygen in my brain. How was I supposed to function properly on that? I couldn't, there could be people out there who found it easy to make sense of things while under stressful circumstances, but at that point even shadows gave me a fright.

"Oh God Kim!" That's when the door burst open, hitting my nose and throwing me back against the floor I'd found myself in when I came to for the first time. The feeling when I opened my eyes had such a strong deja vu that I jumped backwards and away from the blurry face in front of me which then came back to being a HD image again more once my eyes were able to focus. Except I didn't have my glasses so, you know, not so much. "You're Ok! I can't believe I almost lost you!" He proceeded to hug me as close as humanly possible, crushing my lungs. It wasn't what I imagined my first hug with a guy to be like considering the fact that my lungs were struggling enough to get air in them as it was, without having someone strangling me.

"And you're about to lose me again if you don't loosen your grip." The words were forced out of my mouth but he managed to hear them just like he heard my soft whisper, somehow he'd developed super hearing in the past two minutes. Yet then an even stranger thing happened as he swooped me up and started carrying me to the door. "What the hell are you doing?!" I was so confused at this point that it wasn't even funny. He'd said "I almost lost you" as if my life mattered to him and now he was taking me to the door as if I were a princess? This was so strange. I wasn't exactly content with my fairytale ending though considering my nose was bleeding and it just generally didn't feel right. This wasn't how it's supposed to happen, well, I mean, it _is_ but didn't love take time to get a hold of someone's heart. Wait, what was I even saying? The idea that Jared could like me, let alone love me was preposterous, like literally the stupidest fantasy my mind had ever invented to keep my mind happy during a time of stress. This was probably just a dream anyway, Jared wouldn't be able to carry me, he could _try_, doesn't mean it would end well.

"I'm taking you to the hospital. Then to the police station." But he wasn't headed to the hospital. Was this another evil scheme my kidnapper had planned out to play with my heartstrings in unimaginably twisted and hurtful ways. Surely he wouldn't, couldn't, be that cruel, right? When he locked me up I bet he was filled with, I don't know, testosterone? Just general rage? It was an act of violence, he wasn't a cold hearted murderer.

"Jared?" Flinching at how weak my voice wounded I tried again. "Jared the hospital is that way." My shaking hand gestured in the direction opposite to the one we were headed as Jared turned slowly to me without taking his eyes off the road.

"The hospital people might not treat you nicely enough, so I'm taking you somewhere else where they can see if you're Ok." I wasn't sure that was a valid excuse but Jared's tense posture on the steering wheel told me that telling him a hospital would be fine was not, under any circumstances an option. _He's only doing this because of the stress of the moment, he's probably going to go back to ignore you at school, like always._ Shut up inner voice. He might actually care. Well he wouldn't but as I'd said the whole Jared delusion was just to get me cheered up, nothing else, so I wasn't getting my hopes up or anything much less attached to the idea of him caring for me. I knew the evil voice at the back of my head was more than right.

"I don't think this is such a great-" Because I was 100% aware that if he took me to this private place he'd be forced to stick with me, whether he wanted to or not. I didn't like the idea of holding him hostage like my father had done for me. Yet I was interrupted by Jared and the finality his words had.

"We're here."

Oh God. This was happening. No getting out of it now. I didn't even know why the prospect of going into that house was so terrifying, hadn't I faced worse demons than that today? Nope, my mind had gone haywire, not able to judge what was scary and what was very much not.

Bloody perfect. I was stuck in a house with strangers, almost got kidnapped, and was now freaking insane.


	7. Going to rescue

I was dragged into the house by Jared after he opened the car door for me, chivalrous, I know, but I didn't really have it in me today to be a fangirl. He had carried me again even though I insisted that he hadn't hurt me and my dad had simply locked me in there but Jared hadn't listened to me, dumping me on the couch, yelling at a girl called Emily to get her ass over there to help me and then… Leaving. Just like that.

So now I was stuck in whoever's house this was with Emily cooing over me, trying to force chicken soup down my throat as she whispered you poor baby over and over again. Last time I checked I wasn't five, traumatic experience or not. For the millionth time I shook my head and pushed the bowl down with as much force as I could muster. Emily was nice despite everything which made my soft hearted nature come out.

"Emily this honestly isn't necessary, I mean the only real problem I had in there was that I… I didn't know where…" Nonononononono! "Crap the twins oh my God oh my God oh my God. I forgot that they're trapped somewhere and oh my _God_. They're probably scared and crying , Grey trying to act brave while Blue waits for her prince charming to come while they're both just scared inside." At the mental image that appeared of them huddled in a corner of a cold and damp basement I almost broke into tears, instead trying to stand up. Yet I was breathing so hard, panicking so much, that my legs gave out beneath me, my legs pulled up to my chest in an attempt to protect myself from the harm.

_You're not in harm's way you dumbass! It's your brother and sister out there so get you fat ass up and help them for God's sake!_ Conscience for once was right, surprisingly, so I got myself off the floor, putting on the hardest face I could manage, which to be honest wasn't much considering the hyperventilating hadn't stopped just because of a few motivational words from conscience.

"Kim where do you think you're going?" Emily stood in front of the door with her arms crossed, forming an obstacle I didn't expect, making it all the worse. "I was told by Jared that you are not to leave, you're still recovering love." Okay, I barely knew Jared, let alone this lady who'd decided to take it upon herself to shield me from the world at some point this evening, so what the hell did they think they were doing, trying to keep me from saving my little brother and sister? If it had just been Emily I honestly wouldn't have minded all that much but the minute Jared came into the conversation the feminist side of me stood up.

"Jared can't tell me what to do." My voice never rose above normal conversation level, a technique I'd seen in lot's of films and read about in books: _His face portrayed none of the anger his eyes showed me, the whisper in which he'd said the threat making it even more imposing._ So yeah, I was kind of hoping that my voice was as menacing as that, but I highly doubted it, especially after seeing Emily's raised eyebrow.

"And I know that honey but you really shouldn't go anywhere." I didn't care if I flipping should or not, all my mind was processing right now were the horrid mental images being thrown at me every two seconds.

Grey crying. Blue crying. Them trying to stay as far away from the door as humanly possible. Them whimpering every time a step was heard. Blue scared. Grey scared. Both of them shouting my name in hopes that I'd come to save them.

Now I could say that I reacted rationally, deciding that if I drew out a plan in my head everything would end up great with my baby brother and sister safe in my arms by the end of the day but, well, that wasn't very likely to happen, especially after the last image. How _dare_ I forget about them? I was the only person in their family who actually cared about them, the only one who'd loved them for their whole life, and I'd forgotten that I had to save them. Me, their last hope, had simply left them all alone.

"I'm sorry Emily but I have to at least try. Even if I die trying." I knew my dad wouldn't hurt me enough to kill me, at least I hoped so, so with a push a got rid of the only thing between me and my siblings. Well, that and my dad but once I got there I'd decide what to do. This time I wouldn't need saving, this time I was going to rescue the most important people in my life because without them there wouldn't be a point in trying to keep going, nobody would remember me anyway.

* * *

><p>My feet hit the pavement at a steady rhythm as I went to the only place I could think of, where I'd been stuck. Maybe my dad had brought them there? Or maybe he was sitting in his old recliner waiting for me to fall right into his trap as he laughed maniacally. I honestly wouldn't care less except that if it was a trap then that would mean Grey and Blue were somewhere else but I was ready to kick him where the sun don't shine repeatedly until he told me where he was keeping them hostage.<p>

The run was pretty long, so long that the sun was starting to set by the time I arrived at my house, out of breath. The scenery was beautiful but just like the chivalry displayed by Jared before I couldn't stop to admire it, I simply had to keep going. It was like a mantra in my head Find siblings. Save siblings. Comfort siblings. Tell them we would never see that man again. Go out for ice cream. The last one seemed like the best step out of all of them but I was ready to go through every single one of those bullet points if it meant I would have a nice relaxing meal (if ice cream can even be classified as such) with my lost brother and sister.

**Meanwhile with Jared…**

"Ugh! I mean I scanned the room and I was so scared and I just… I saw this will written on a box with pencil and her lying there in the middle of the room… I can't even…" I kicked a rock out of my path and into a tree, destroying it a little.

"Why are you here then?"

"Huh?" I looked at him totally confused yet as his words sunk in my face must've turned into a mask of horror. I hadn't thought of that. I'd been so nervous and scared that the first thing I thought of doing was running a perimeter around La Push to make sure no vampire were nearby so she couldn't get hurt anymore and by the end of that I had been so freaked out that I'd come to rant a little to Sam.

"I was so scared that I didn't even realise that I would've been more useful next to her. Crap!" Sam face palmed next to me, I simply flipped him off, running towards civilization and away from the forest.

"You're welcome!" He shouted back at me as I sprinted but I didn't pay him any attention because Kim's scent didn't get any stronger when I approached Emily's house. That could only mean one thing.

Kim wasn't there.


End file.
